Surah Al-anbiya in english

Verse 1

Nigh has drawn for mankind, the people of Mecca, the deniers of the Resurrection, their reckoning, [on] the Day of Resurrection, yet they are heedless, of it, disregardful, of the preparation [required] for it by way of [embracing] faith.

Verse 2

There does not come to them any new reminder from their Lord, [revealed] gradually, in other words, [new] words of the Qur’ān, but they listen to it as they play, [as they] engage in mockery,

Verse 3

with their hearts preoccupied, heedless of its meanings. And they are secret in [their] conference, [their] speech, [they] the evildoers (alladhīna zalamū, a substitution for the [third person plural indicator] wāw of wa-asarrū’l-najwā, ‘and they are secret in conference’) ‘Is this, namely, Muhammad (s), other than a [mortal] human being like yourselves?, and so what he produces is [mere] sorcery. Will you then take [to] sorcery, [will] you [succumb and] follow it, even though you are able to see?’, [even though] you know that it is sorcery?

Verse 4

He said, to them, ‘My Lord knows the words, that are [spoken], in the heavens and the earth, and He is the Hearer, of what they keep secret, the Knower’, of it.

Verse 5

Nay (bal, in the three instances [below] effects a transition from one subject to another) but they say, regarding those parts of the Qur’ān he [the Prophet] has brought [to them] are: ‘A muddle of nightmares, a confusion [of things] he has seen in [his] sleep. Nay, he has fabricated it, he has invented it; nay, he is a poet, and what he has brought is [merely] poetry! So let him bring us a sign, such as was sent to the ancients’, like the she-camel [Sālih], the staff and the [glowing] hand [of Moses]. God, exalted be He, says:

Verse 6

No town before them ever believed — meaning [none of] its inhabitants — of those that We destroyed, for the denial of the signs brought to them. Would they then believe? No.

Verse 7

And We sent none before you other than men to whom We revealed (read nūhī or yūhā, ‘[to whom] it is revealed’) and [We sent] not any angels. Ask the People of the Remembrance, those with knowledge of the Torah and the Gospel, if you do not know, this; for they will know it. Since you are more likely to believe them than the believers are to believing Muhammad (s).

Verse 8

And We did not make them, namely, the messengers, bodies that did not eat food, nay, they eat it; and they were not immortal, in this world.

Verse 9

Then We fulfilled to them the promise, to deliver them. So We delivered them and whomever We would, [of] those who believed in them, and We destroyed the prodigal, those who denied them.

Verse 10

Now We have sent down [as revelation] to you, O clan of Quraysh, a Book in which there is the remembrance that is yours, for it is in your language. Will you not understand?, and so believe in it?

Verse 11

And how many did We destroy of towns — meaning its inhabitants — that had been wrongdoing, disbelieving, and brought forth another people after it!

Verse 12

And when they felt Our might, [when] the inhabitants of the town sensed destruction [to be near], behold, they ran away from it, they flee hastily [therefrom].

Verse 13

But the angels said to them scornfully: ‘Do not run [away]! Return to the opulence, the comforts, which you were given to enjoy and your dwelling-places, that perhaps you might be asked’, for something of your worldly possessions as usual.

Verse 14

They said, ‘O (yā is for calling attention [to something]) woe to us!, [this is] our destruction! We have indeed been doing wrong’, through [our] disbelief.

Verse 15

So that, saying, remained their cry, which they would make and repeat, until We made them as reaped [crops], as crops harvested with sickles when they were killed with the sword, stilled, dead, like the stillness of fire when it is extinguished.

Verse 16

And We did not create the heaven and the earth and all that is between them, playing, being frivolous, but to indicate Our power and to benefit Our servants.

Verse 17

Had We desired to find some diversion, that which provides diversion, in the way of a partner or a child, We would have found it with Ourselves, from among the beautiful-eyed houris or angels, were We to do [so]. But We did not do so, thus We never desired it.

Verse 18

Nay, but We hurl, We cast, the truth, faith, against falsehood, disbelief, and it obliterates it, and behold, it vanishes, disappears (damaghahu, ‘it obliterates it’, actually means ‘it struck the brain with a blow’, [a blow] which is fatal). And for you, O disbelievers of Mecca, there shall be woe, severe chastisement, for what you ascribe, to God, of mate or child.

Verse 19

And to Him, exalted be He, belongs whoever is in the heavens and the earth, as possessions, and those who are near Him, namely, the angels (wa-man ‘indahu, the subject, the predicate of which [is the following clause]) do not disdain to worship Him, nor do they weary.

Verse 20

They glorify [Him] night and day, and they do not falter, in it, for it comes to them as [naturally as] breathing comes to us, [something] which we can never be distracted from.

Verse 21

Or (am, functions with the meaning of bal, ‘nay’, to effect a transition [in subject-matter]; the hamza is for [rhetorical] denial) have they chosen gods, that are, from the earth, such as stones, gold or silver, who, that is, gods [who], resurrect? who bring the dead back to life? No! Indeed only one who brings the dead back to life can be God.

Verse 22

Had there been in [either of] them, that is, [in] the heavens and the earth, gods other than God, that is, other than Him, the two would have surely deteriorated, they [the heavens and the earth] would have deviated from their observed order, because counteractive forces would exist among such [gods], as is usually the case, when there is more than one ruler, that there is counteraction and a lack of consensus regarding something. So glory be to God — an exaltation — the Lord, the Creator, of the Throne, al-kursī, above what they ascribe, the disbelievers, to God, of His having a partner and otherwise.

Verse 23

He shall not be questioned about what He does, but they shall be questioned, about their actions.

Verse 24

Or have they chosen besides Him, exalted be He, other than Him, gods? (herein is an interrogative meant as a rebuke). Say: ‘Bring your proof, for this — but such a thing is impossible. This is the Remembrance of those with me, namely, my community, and that [Remembrance] is the Qur’ān, and the Remembrance of those before me, of communities, namely, the Torah and the Gospel and other Books of God, not a single one of which contains the statement that with God there exists another god, in the way that they claim — exalted be He above such a thing. Nay, but most of them do not know the truth, the affirmation of God’s Oneness, and so they are disregardful’, of that discernment that leads to [knowledge of] it.

Verse 25

And We did not send any Messenger before you but We revealed to him (read nūhī or yūhā, ‘[but] it was revealed to him’) that, ‘There is no god except Me, so worship Me’, that is, affirm My Oneness.

Verse 26

And they say, ‘The Compassionate One has taken a son’, from the angels. Glory be to Him! Nay, but they are [merely] servants who are honoured, in His presence; for [the very] servitude [of all creatures to Him] is inconsistent with [the attribution of any of them as] progeny [of His].

Verse 27

They do not [venture to] speak before Him — they only speak after He has spoken, and they act according to His command, that is, following [His issuing of] it.

Verse 28

He knows what is before them and what is behind them, that is, what they have done and what they will do, and they do not intercede except for him with whom He is satisfied, that he be interceded for, and they, for awe of Him, exalted be He, are apprehensive, fearful.

Verse 29

And should any of them say, ‘I am a god besides Him’, that is, [besides] God, in other words, [a god] other than Him — and this is Iblīs, who summoned [others] to worship his soul and commanded that it be obeyed — such a one We will requite with Hell. Thus, in the same way that We requite him, We requite wrong-doers, idolaters.

Verse 30

Have they not ([one may] read a-wa-lam or a-lam) realised, [have they not] come to know, those who disbelieve, that the heavens and the earth were closed together and then We parted them, We made seven heavens and seven earths — or [it is meant] that the heaven was parted and began to rain, when it did not use to do so, and that the earth was parted and began to produce plants, when it did not use to do so; and We made, of water, [the water] that falls from the heaven and that springs from the earth, every living thing?, in the way of plants and otherwise: in other words, water is the cause of such [things] having life. Will they not then believe?, by affirming My Oneness?

Verse 31

And We set in the earth firm mountains lest it should shake with them, and We set in them, [in] the firm mountains, ravines, as roads (subulan substitutes [for fijājan, ‘ravines’, which are wide through-routes]), that perhaps they may be guided, to their destinations during travel.

Verse 32

And We made the heaven a roof, for the earth, [functioning] like the roof of a house, preserved, from collapsing; and yet of the signs thereof, namely, [the signs of this heaven such as] the sun, the moon and the stars, they are disregardful, failing to reflect on them and thus realise that the Creator of such [things] can have no partner.

Verse 33

And He it is Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each (kullun, the nunation of this [particle] stands in place of the second noun [of the genitive construction] that would have been al-shams, ‘the sun’, or al-qamar, ‘the moon’, or their subsidiaries, namely, al-nujūm, ‘the stars’) in an orbit, a circular [one] like a mill in the sky, swimming, moving with speed, like a swimmer in water. In order to effect the analogy with the latter, the plural person [of the verb employed] for rational beings is used.

Verse 34

When the disbelievers said that Muhammad (s) would die, the following was revealed: And We did not assign to any human being before you immortality, permanence [of life] in this world. What, if you [are fated to] die, will they be immortal?, in it? No! (The last sentence constitutes the [syntactical] locus of the interrogative of denial).

Verse 35

Every soul shall taste death, in this world, and We will try you, We will test you, with ill and good, such as poverty and wealth, sickness and health, as an ordeal (fitnatan, an object denoting reason, in other words, for the purpose of seeing whether you will be patient and give thanks or not). And then unto Us you shall be brought back, that We may requite you.

Verse 36

And whenever the disbelievers see you, they only take you in derision, that is, as one to be derided, saying: ‘Is this the one who mentions your gods?’, that is, [the one who] derides them? And yet when it comes to the mention of the Compassionate One, to them, they (hum, [repeated] for emphasis) are disbelieving, of it, saying, ‘We do not know of any such [individual]’.

Verse 37

The following was revealed regarding their demand that chastisement be hastened: Man was created of haste, that is to say, because he is so hasty in his affairs, it is as if he had been created out of it. Assuredly I shall show you My signs, My promises of chastisement, so do not demand that I hasten, in [sending] it. And so He [God] made them suffer death at [the battle of] Badr.

Verse 38

And they say, ‘When will this promise, of resurrection, be [fulfilled], if you are truthful?’, about it.

Verse 39

[God] exalted be He, says: If those who disbelieved only knew of the time when they shall not [be able to] ward off, repel, the Fire from their faces, nor from their backs, nor shall they be helped, [nor] shall they be protected from it at the Resurrection (the response to the [conditional particle] law, ‘if only’, is [something along the lines of] ‘they would not have said that’).

Verse 40

Nay, but it, the Resurrection, shall come upon them suddenly, dumbfounding them, confusing them, and they shall not be able to ward it off, nor shall they be granted any respite, [nor shall they] be given any [extra] time to make a repentance or offer an excuse.

Verse 41

And verily messengers before you were derided — herein is a statement to comfort the Prophet (s) — but those who mocked them were encircled by, it was sent down [against them], that which they used to deride, namely, chastisement — likewise it shall befall those who have derided you.

Verse 42

Say, to them: ‘Who can guard you, preserve you, by night and day from the Compassionate One?’, from His chastisement, if it should befall you? In other words, no one can do such a thing. Those being addressed [here] do not fear God’s chastisement because they deny [the truth of] it. Nay, but of the Remembrance of their Lord, that is, the Qur’ān, they are disregardful, failing to reflect on it.

Verse 43

Or is it that they have (am, ‘or’, functions with the sense of a hamza used to indicate denial, that is, [read it as] a-lahum, ‘do they have’) gods to defend them, against that which might cause them harm, besides Us? In other words, do they have anyone other than Us to defend them against such [things]? No! They, namely, the gods, cannot help themselves, and so they will not [be able to] help them; nor shall they, the disbelievers, be protected from Us, from Our chastisement (one may say sahibaka’Llāhu, to mean ‘May God preserve and protect you’).

Verse 44

Nay, but We provided [comforts] for these and their fathers, in the way of the graces which We bestowed on them, until life lasted long for them, so that they were deluded by such [longevity]. Do they not see how We visit the land, [how] We target their land, diminishing it at its edges?, by granting the Prophet victory [through conquest]. Are they the ones who will prevail? No, it is rather the Prophet and his Companions [who will do so].

Verse 45

Say, to them: ‘I warn you only by the Revelation’, [that comes] from God, and not by my own prompting. But the deaf do not hear the call when (idhā, read pronouncing both hamzas fully, or omitting the second [hamza] between it and the yā’) they are warned. They are like those who are deaf, when they fail to act in accordance with the warnings they hear.

Verse 46

And if a whiff, a slight instance, of your Lord’s chastisement were to touch them, they would indeed say, ‘O (yā, used for drawing attention [to something]) woe for us!, [O this is] our destruction! Truly we were doing evil’, in ascribing partners to God and denying [the Mission of] Muhammad (s).

Verse 47

And We shall set up the just balances, the equitable ones, for the Day of Resurrection, that is, on it, and no soul shall be wronged in any way, neither by deducting a good deed [from its record], nor by adding [to it] an evil one; and even if it, the action, be the weight of a [single] mustard seed, We shall produce it, with its full weight, and We suffice as reckoners, to count all things.

Verse 48

And verily We gave Moses and Aaron the Criterion, the Torah that discriminates between truth and falsehood, and [between] what is lawful and unlawful, and an illumination, by it, and remembrance, an admonition therein, for those who are wary of God,

Verse 49

those who fear their Lord in concealment, from people, that is, when they are in seclusion from them, and who, on account of the Hour, that is, [on account of] its terrors, are apprehensive, fearful.

Verse 50

And this, namely, the Qur’ān, is a blessed Remembrance which We have revealed. Will you then deny it? (the interrogative here is intended as a rebuke).

Verse 51

And verily We had given Abraham his rectitude before, that is, his [right] guidance before he came of age — and We were Aware of him, in that he was deserving of such [guidance],

Verse 52

when he said to his father and his people, ‘What are these images, [these] idols, to which you [constantly] cleave?’, that is, which you are constantly worshipping.

Verse 53

They said, ‘We found our fathers worshipping them’, and so we followed their example.

Verse 54

He said, to them, ‘Truly you and your fathers, by worshipping them, have been in manifest error’.

Verse 55

They said, ‘Do you bring us the truth, in that which you are saying, or are you being frivolous?’, in this regard.

Verse 56

He said, ‘Nay, but your Lord, the [only] One worthy of being worshipped, is the Lord, the Owner, of the heavens and the earth, [the One] Who originated them, [Who] created them without any precedent, and to that, which I have said, I am a witness.

Verse 57

And, by God, I shall devise [a stratagem] against your idols after you have gone away, with your backs turned’.

Verse 58

And so, after they had set off to a gathering of theirs on one of their festival days, he reduced them to fragments (read judhādhan or jidhādhan, meaning ‘pieces’), [smashing them] with a hatchet, [all] except the principal one among them, around whose neck he hung the hatchet, that they might return to it, that is, to the principal one, and see what he had done to the others.

Verse 59

They said, upon returning and seeing what had been done, ‘Who has done this to our gods? Truly he is an evildoer’, in this regard.

Verse 60

They said, one to the other: ‘We heard a young man making [ill] mention of them, deriding them — he is called Abraham’.

Verse 61

They said, ‘Then bring him before the people’s eyes, that is, openly, that they may testify’, against him as being the perpetrator.

Verse 62

They said, to him, after he had been brought [before them]: ‘So, is it you (read a-anta, [either] pronouncing fully the two hamzas; or substituting an alif for the second one, or not pronouncing it [the second one], and inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the other one, or without [this insertion]) who has done this to our gods, O Abraham?’

Verse 63

He said, concealing his deed: ‘Rather it was this principal one among them did it. So question them, about the perpetrator of this, if they can speak!’ (here the response to the conditional statement precedes [the conditional clause]; in the preceding clause there is an intimation for them that an idol, acknowledged as being incapable of action, cannot be a god).

Verse 64

So they turned [thinking] to themselves, in reflection, and they said, to themselves: ‘Truly it is you who are the evildoers’, for worshipping that which cannot speak.

Verse 65

Then they were turned, by God, on their heads, that is to say, they were made to return to their disbelief and said, ‘By God, you are certainly aware that these [idols] cannot speak’, in other words, how can you thus command us to question them?

Verse 66

He said, ‘Do you then worship, besides God, that is, in His place, that which cannot benefit you in any way, with regard to [granting you] provision and otherwise, nor harm you?, in any way if you were not to worship it?

Verse 67

Fie (read uffin or uffan, with the sense of a verbal noun, meaning ‘a putrid thing or a vile thing [be]’) on you and what you worship besides God, that is, other than Him. Do you not comprehend?’, that these idols are not worthy of being worshipped and are not fit for such [a purpose] — only God, exalted be He, is worthy of it.

Verse 68

They said, ‘Burn him, that is, [burn] Abraham, and stand by your gods, by having him burnt, if you are to do anything’, in the way of standing by them. Thus they gathered lots of firewood and lit a fire throughout it. They then tied up Abraham, placed him in a ballista and had him hurled into the fire. God, exalted be He, says:

Verse 69

We said, ‘O fire! Be coolness and safety for Abraham!’, and so it only consumed the bonds [with which he had been tied]. Its heat departed, but its luminosity remained. And by His words wa-salāman, ‘and safety’, Abraham was safe from (salima) death because of its coolness.

Verse 70

And they sought to outwit him, namely, by having him burnt, but We made them the greater losers, in what they sought.

Verse 71

And We delivered him, as well as Lot — son of his [Abraham’s] brother Hārān — from Iraq, [and brought them] to the land which We have blessed for all peoples, [blessed it] with an abundance of rivers and trees, and this is Syria. Abraham settled in Palestine, and Lot in the Sinful City (al-mu’tafika, cf. Q. 53:53); and between the two is [the distance of] a day’s journey.

Verse 72

And We gave him, namely, Abraham — for he had asked for a child, as mentioned in [sūrat] al-Sāffāt [Q. 37:100] — Isaac, and Jacob as a gift, that is, as [something] in addition to what was requested; or it means ‘a grandson’; and each of them, that is, himself and the two born of him, We made righteous, [We made them] prophets.

Verse 73

And We made them leaders (read a-immatan pronouncing both hamzas, or substituting the second one with a yā’), whose example of good [conduct] is followed, guiding, people, by Our command, to Our religion, and We inspired in them the performance of good deeds and the maintenance of prayers and the payment of alms, that is, [We inspired] that these [good deeds] be performed, [prayers] be maintained, and [alms] be payed by them and by their followers (the [final] hā’ of iqāma has been omitted to soften [the reading]), and they used to worship Us.

Verse 74

And to Lot We gave judgement, the ability to judge decisively between opposing parties, and knowledge; and We delivered him from the town which had been committing, that is, whose inhabitants had been committing, deeds of, vileness, by way of homosexual intercourse, hazelnut-hurling and bird-games and other things. Truly they were a folk of evil [people] (saw’ is the verbal noun of sā’ahu, ‘he harmed him’, the opposite of sarrahu, ‘he delighted him’), immoral.

Verse 75

And We admitted him into Our mercy, by Our saving him from his people. He was indeed one of the righteous.

Verse 76

And, mention, Noah (what follows [Nūhan] substitutes for it) when he called, when he supplicated [to God] against his people — with the words My Lord, do not leave [upon the earth any inhabitant from among the disbelievers] … to the end [of the verse, Q. 71:26], before, that is, before [the time of] Abraham and Lot. And We responded to him, and delivered him and his people, who were in the Ark with him, from the great agony, namely, [from] drowning and his people’s denial of him.

Verse 77

And We helped him, We defended him, against the people who denied Our signs, the ones indicating his Mission, lest they cause him any harm. They were indeed an evil people, so We drowned them all.

Verse 78

And, mention, David and Solomon, that is, [mention] their story (Dāwūda wa-Sulaymāna is substituted by [the following, idh yahkumāni …]) when they gave judgement concerning the tillage, a field of crops or a vineyard, when the sheep of a [certain] people strayed into it, that is, [when these sheep] grazed there at night, but without a shepherd, because they had escaped; and We were witnesses to their judgement (li-hukmihim shāhidīna: here the plural person is being used in the case of a dual). David decreed: to the owner of the tillage belong the head of the sheep. Solomon decreed: he shall benefit from [the use of] their milk, offspring and wool until such time as the tillage is restored to its original state at the hands of the owner [of the sheep], after which he [the owner of the tillage] should return them [the sheep] to him [their owner].

Verse 79

And We gave understanding of this, that is, the judgement, to Solomon. [It is said that] both of their decisions were [the result of] independent judgement [exercised by both], and that David consulted Solomon; but it is also said [that their decisions were] by way of inspiration [from God] — the second [decision] abrogated the first. And to each, of the twain, We gave judgement, prophethood, and knowledge, in matters of religion. And We disposed the mountains to glorify [God] with David, and the birds also, were disposed to glorify [God] with him, for he [David] had commanded such [glorification on their part], so that whenever there was a lapse [on his part], he would [be reminded to] apply himself to the task [of glorifying God] promptly. And We were [certainly] doers, of this disposing of them to glorify [God] along with him, even if it should amaze you, that they should [be able to] respond to the lord David.

Verse 80

And We taught him the art of making garments, namely, coats of mail — [which are called labūs] because they are worn (tulbas). He was the first [human being] to make them; hitherto there were [only] plates [of armour] — for you, as well as all mankind, to protect you (read nuhsinakum, [the subject being] ‘God’; or yuhsinakum, [the subject being] ‘David’; or tuhsinakum, [the subject being] ‘garments’) against your [mutual] violence, your wars against your enemies. Will you then, O people of Mecca, be thankful?, for My favours, by believing in the Messenger — in other words, be thankful to Me by [doing] this.

Verse 81

And, We disposed, for Solomon the wind to blow strongly — in another verse it is [described as being] rukhā’an, ‘to blow softly’ [Q. 38:36]; in other words, [it is either] blowing violently or gently [respectively], according to what he [Solomon] wanted — making its way, at his command, to the land which We have blessed, namely, Syria; and We have knowledge of all things, among them the fact that God, exalted be He, knew that what He gave to Solomon would prompt him to be subservient to his Lord, and so God did this in accordance with His knowledge.

Verse 82

And, We disposed, of the devils some that dived for him, plunging into the sea and bringing out of it jewels for Solomon, and performed tasks other than that, that is, other than diving, such as building and otherwise. And We were watchful over them, lest they should spoil what they had made, for whenever they completed a task before nightfall, they would [invariably] spoil it, unless they were occupied with some other [task].

Verse 83

And, mention, Job (Ayyūba, is substituted by [the following, idh nādā rabbahu …]) when he called out to his Lord — after he had been afflicted with the loss of all of his possessions and children, the laceration of his body, his being shunned by all except his wife, for a period of thirteen, seventeen, or eighteen years, as well as [the affliction of enduring] a straitened means of livelihood — ‘Indeed (read annī because of the implicit yā’ [of the first person pronoun]) harm, adversity, has befallen me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful’.

Verse 84

So We responded to him, in his call, and removed the harm that had befallen him, and We gave him [back] his family, his male and female children, by bringing them back to life — of each sex there were three or seven along with them [other children] the like of them, from his wife, for she was made younger. He had also possessed a threshing floor for wheat and another for barley, so God sent two clouds and one of them poured forth gold onto the wheat threshing floor and the other poured forth silver onto the barley threshing floor, until they overflowed; as a mercy (rahmatan, a direct object denoting reason) from Us (min ‘indinā, an adjectival phrase) and a reminder to worshippers, that they be patient and thus be rewarded [by God].

Verse 85

And, mention, Ishmael and Idrīs and Dhū’l-Kifl — all were of the patient, in [maintaining] obedience to God and staying away from acts of disobedience to Him.

Verse 86

And We admitted them into Our mercy, through [granting them] prophethood. Indeed they were among the worthy, of it. Dhū’l-Kifl was so called because he undertook (takaffala) to fast every day and stay up every night in prayer, and to pass judgement between people without succumbing to anger, and fulfilled this [undertaking]. It is also said, however, that he was not a prophet.

Verse 87

And, mention, Dhū’l-Nūn, the one of the whale, namely, Jonah son of Amittai (Yūnus bin Mattā) when he went off enraged ([Dhā’l-Nūn] is substituted by [the clause idh dhahaba mughādiban]) by his people, that is, furious with them because of what he had suffered at their hands — even though he had not been granted permission [by God to go off as he did] — thinking that We had no power over him, that is, that We could [not] compel him to [submit to] Our decree in the way that We did by imprisoning him inside the stomach of the whale; or that We could [not] make circumstances difficult for him. Then he cried out in the darknesses, [through] the darkness of the night, the darkness of the sea and the darkness of the whale’s stomach, that: ‘There is no god except You! Glory be to You! I have indeed been one of the wrongdoers’, for leaving my people without [Your] permission.

Verse 88

So We responded to him and delivered him from the distress, by [means of] those words, and thus, in the same way that We delivered him, We deliver the believers, from their anguish when they call out to Us seeking succour.

Verse 89

And, mention, Zachariah (Zakariyyā, is substituted by [the following, idh nādā rabbahu …]) when he cried out to his Lord, saying: ‘My Lord, do not leave me without an heir, without a son to inherit from me, and You are the best of inheritors’, the One that endures after all of your creation has perished.

Verse 90

So We responded to him, in his call, and gave him John, as a son, and We restored [fertility to] his wife for him, and so she bore a child, having been barren. Truly they, those prophets that have been mentioned, would hasten to, [they would] hurry [to perform], good works, [namely] acts of obedience, and supplicate Us out of desire, for Our mercy, and in awe, of Our chastisement, and they were submissive before Us, humble in their worship.

Verse 91

And, mention Mary, the one who guarded her virginity, [the one who] preserved it from being taken, so We breathed into her of Our spirit, namely, Gabriel, when he breathed into the opening of her garment and she conceived Jesus. And We made her and her son a sign for all the worlds, that is, [for] mankind, jinn and angels, because she bore him without [having] a male [partner].

Verse 92

‘Truly this, creed of Islam, is your community, your religion, O you who are being addressed — in other words, you must adhere to it as, one community, [this being] a necessary state [of affairs], and I am your Lord, so worship Me’, affirm My Oneness.

Verse 93

But they, that is to say, some of those being addressed, fragmented their affair among themselves, that is, they became divided in the matter of their religion, and at variance over it — these are the [different] sects of the Jews and the Christians. God, exalted be He, says: All shall return to Us, and We will requite each according to his deeds.

Verse 94

And whoever performs righteous deeds, being a believer — no rejection, that is, no denial, will there be of his endeavour, and We will indeed write it down for him, by commanding the guardian angels to record it and then We requite him for it.

Verse 95

It is forbidden for any town, meaning [it is forbidden for] its people, which We have destroyed that they should (lā yarji‘ūna: the lā is extra) return, that is, their return to this world is prohibited.

Verse 96

Until (hattā, [a particle] expressing the end of the prohibition of their return) when Gog and Magog (read Ya’jūju wa-Ma’jūju or Yājūju wa-Mājūju, [these are] non-Arabic names of two tribes; there is an implicit genitive annexation before this clause, namely, the [gates of the] sadd, ‘the barrier’, [built] against them) are let loose (read futihat or futtihat) — and this will happen near the [time of the] Resurrection — and they slide down, they hasten, from every slope, [every] highland.

Verse 97

And the true promise, that is, the Day of Resurrection, draws near and behold, when, the gaze of the disbelievers will be fixed, on that Day, because of its severity, saying: ‘O (yā is for exclamation) woe to us!, [this is] our destruction! Verily, in the [life of the] world, we were oblivious to this, Day. Nay, but we were doing wrong’, to our souls by our denial of the messengers.

Verse 98

‘Truly you, O people of Mecca, and what you worship besides God, that is, other than Him, in the way of graven images, shall be fuel for Hell, [you shall be] its fodder; and you shall come to it’, [you shall] enter it.

Verse 99

Had these, graven images, been gods, as you claim, they would never have come to it, [they would never have] entered it, and they will all, both the worshippers and the worshipped, abide therein.

Verse 100

For them, for the worshippers, there will be groaning therein and they will not hear in it, anything, because of the ferocity with which it boils. When [‘Abd Allāh] Ibn al-Ziba‘rī said, ‘Ezra, Jesus and the angels were worshipped: they must also be in the Fire then, according to what has just been stated’, the following was revealed:

Verse 101

Indeed those to whom [the promise of] the best reward, the [best] status, went beforehand from Us, and among such are those who have just been mentioned: they will be kept away from it.

Verse 102

They will not hear the faintest sound from it and they will abide in what their souls desired, of bliss.

Verse 103

The Supreme Terror — which is that a servant be ordered off to the Fire, shall not grieve them, and the angels shall receive them, upon their exiting from their graves, saying to them: ‘This is your day, the one which you were promised’, during the [life of the] world.

Verse 104

The day (yawma is in the accusative because of an implied preceding udhkur, ‘mention’) when We shall roll up the heaven as the Scribe, [al-sijill being] the name of an angel, rolls up the written scroll, that is, the scroll of the son of Adam when he dies (the lām [of li’l-kitāb] is extra; alternatively, [one may read the verse so that] al-sijill is ‘the scroll’, and al-kitāb means al-maktūb ‘what is written’, in which case the lām [of li’l-kitāb] has the sense of [the particle] ‘alā, ‘over’; a variant reading [for li’l-kitāb] has the plural, li’l-kutub, ‘the books’). As We began the first creation, from non-existence, We shall repeat it, after making it non-existent (the kāf [of ka-mā, ‘as’] is semantically connected to nu‘īdu, ‘We shall repeat [it]’, and its [suffixed] pronoun [-hu, ‘it’] refers back to awwala, ‘the first’; the mā relates to the verbal noun) — a promise binding on Us (wa‘dan is in the accusative because [it is the direct object] of an implied preceding wa‘adnā, ‘We promised’, and [the clause] constitutes a confirmation of the import of the preceding [verse, 103]). Truly We shall do [that], which We have promised.

Verse 105

Certainly We wrote in the Scripture, (al-zabūr) means ‘the Book’, that is, the revealed Books of God, after the Remembrance, meaning the Mother of the Book (umm al-kitāb), which is [kept] with God: ‘Indeed the land, the land of Paradise, shall be inherited by My righteous servants’ — [this promise] applies to all righteous ones.

Verse 106

Indeed there is in this, Qur’ān, a proclamation, sufficient means for [securing] entry into Paradise, for a people who are devout, acting in accordance with [what is stipulated in] it.

Verse 107

We did not send you, O Muhammad (s), except as a mercy, that is, to [give] mercy, to all the worlds, [the worlds of] mankind and jinn through you.

Verse 108

Say: ‘All that is being revealed to me is that your God is One God, that is, the only thing that is being revealed to me with respect to the Divine is His Oneness. So will you submit?’, [will you] accede to [affirming] the Oneness of the Divine that is being revealed to me? (the interrogative is meant as an imperative).

Verse 109

But if they turn away, from this, say: ‘I have proclaimed to you, I have notified you of [my declaration of] war [on you], all alike (‘alā sawā’ is a circumstantial qualifier referring to both the subject of the verb and the object) that is to say, you are [all] equal in having knowledge of this: I shall not proceed independently without [having first informed] you, in order for you to make preparations, although I do not know whether near or far is that which you have been promised’, with respect to chastisement, or to the [Day of] Resurrection that comprises this [chastisement]; only God knows it.

Verse 110

Indeed He, exalted be He, knows whatever is spoken aloud, and what you and others do, and He knows what you conceal, both you and others, of secrets.

Verse 111

I do not know; perhaps that, which I have notified you of, but whose time is not known, may be a trial, a test, for you, to see how you will act, and an enjoyment for a while, that is, until your terms of life are concluded (this [second] clause [wa-matā‘un, ‘and an enjoyment’] counters the former, which is the object of the optative expressed by [the particle] la‘alla, ‘perhaps’; the second [clause] cannot be an optative).

Verse 112

Say (qul, a variant reading has qāla, ‘He said’): ‘My Lord! Judge, between me and my deniers, with truth, by [assigning] chastisement for them or victory [for me] over them. And so they were chastised at [the battles of] Badr, Uhud, Hunayn, al-Ahzāb and al-Khandaq and he [the Prophet] was given victory over them. And our Lord is the Compassionate One, Whose help is to be sought against what you allege’, when you invent lies against God, saying that ‘[God] has taken a son’ [cf. Q. 2:116]; and against me, when you say, ‘[he is] a sorcerer’ [cf. Q. 38:4], or against the Qur’ān, when you say, ‘[it is] poetry’ [cf. Q. 52:30].

Verse 1

O mankind, that is, the inhabitants of Mecca and others: fear your Lord, that is, of His punishment, by being obedient to Him. Surely the earthquake of the Hour [of Doom], that is, the violent quaking of the earth after which the sun will rise from the west, [something] which will be near [the time of] the Hour, is a tremendous thing, in the way it will distress people — this itself being a sort of punishment.

Verse 2

On the day when you behold it, every, actually, nursing female, on account of this [tremendous day], will neglect her suckling, that is, she will forget it; and every pregnant female will deliver her burden, and you will see mankind [as though] drunk, because of the severity of [their] fear, yet they will not be drunk, because of any drink; but God’s chastisement is severe, and so they will be terrified of it.

Verse 3

The following was revealed regarding al-Nadr b. al-Hārith and his companions: And among mankind are those who dispute about God without any knowledge — they would say, ‘The angels are God’s daughters, and the Qur’ān [a collection of] the fables of the ancients’. In addition, they would deny resurrection and the bringing back to life of those who had become dust — and [those who] follow, in their manner of disputing, every rebellious devil,

Verse 4

about whom it has been decreed, in other words, it has been decreed with regards to a devil, that whoever takes him for a friend, that is, [whoever] follows him, he will make him go astray and will lead him, summon him, to the chastisement of the Blaze, namely, to the Fire.

Verse 5

O mankind, in other words, [O] people of Mecca, if you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then lo! [consider that] We have created you, that is, [We have created] your origin — Adam — from dust then, We created his progeny, from a drop, a sperm-drop, then from a clot, congealed blood, then from a [little] lump of flesh (mudgha), a piece of flesh, the size of what one would [be able to] chew (mā yumdagh), partly formed, shaped, complete in form, and partly unformed, that is, uncomplete in form, that We may make clear to you, the perfect nature of Our power, that you might [then] infer from this initial act of creation, the [reality of its future] restoration. And We establish (nuqirru, marks a new [grammatically independent] sentence) in the wombs whatever We will for a specified time, that is, until the time for it to come out, then We bring you forth, from the bellies of your mothers, as infants, and then, We extend your life, that you may come of age (ashuddakum), that is to say, [your] prime and strength, which is [that age] between thirty and forty years. And there are some of you who are taken away, by death, before coming of age, and there are some of you who are relegated to the most abject time of life, its most despicable [state] of decrepitude and senility, so that after [having had] some knowledge, he no longer knows anything — ‘Ikrima said, ‘Whoever recites the Qur’ān, such a state will not befall him’. And you see the earth torpid, barren, yet when We send down water upon it, it stirs, it moves, and swells, it rises and grows, and grows [plants of] (anbatat min, min is extra) every delightful, fair, kind, species.

Verse 6

That, which is mentioned, from the commencement of man’s creation to the end of [the description of] the earth being revived, is because God, He is the Truth, the Constant, the Permanent, and because He revives the dead and has power over all things;

Verse 7

and because the Hour will come, whereof there is no doubt, uncertainty; and because God will resurrect those who are in the graves.

Verse 8

The following was revealed regarding Abū Jahl: And among mankind there are some who dispute about God without [any] knowledge or guidance, [being] with him, or an enlightening Scripture, one containing light, [being] with him,

Verse 9

turning aside (thāniya ‘itfihi, a circumstantial qualifier, meaning ‘turning his neck aside in disdain of belief; al-ītf means ‘a side’, and can be either the left or the right) to go astray (read li-yadilla; or li-yudilla, ‘to lead [others] astray’) from the way of God, that is, [from] His religion. For him there will be ignominy, chastisement, in this world — thus he [Abū Jahl] was slain on the day of Badr — and on the Day of Resurrection We shall make him taste the chastisement of the burning, that is, [the chastisement of] being burnt in the Fire, and it shall be said to him:

Verse 10

‘That is [the chastisement] for what your hands have sent ahead, in other words, what you have offered [in the way of deeds] — He refers to him with reference to the two [hands] as opposed to other [parts], because most actions are effected through them — and because God is not unjust to His servants’, chastising them without [their having committed] any sin.

Verse 11

And among mankind there are those who worship God on a knife-edge: that is, with uncertainty in his worship — such [a person] has been likened the [knife-] edge of a mountain in his precariousness — if good [fortune] befalls him, [so that he enjoys] health and security with respect to his own self and his property, he is reassured by it; but if an ordeal befalls him, a trial or ill-health with regard to himself or his property, he makes a turnabout, that is, he reverts to disbelief, losing both this world, when what he had hoped for in it has eluded him, and the Hereafter, by [his] disbelief. That is the manifest loss.

Verse 12

He calls on, he worships, besides God, in the way of idols, that which could not hurt him, should he refrain from worshipping it, and that which could not profit him, if were to worship it. Such, a call, is extreme error, from the truth.

Verse 13

He calls on him (the lām [of la-man] is extra) whose harm, when worshipped, is likelier than his benefit, even if he were to have any benefit, as he imagines [him to have]. Truly an evil patron, is he, that is, [an evil] helper, and an evil friend, [an evil] companion is he. After the mention of ‘the doubter’ and [his being in manifest] ‘loss’ [above, verse 11] there follows [the mention of] the believers and [their] reward, as follows:

Verse 14

Truly God shall admit those who believe and perform righteous deeds, in the way of obligatory and supererogatory acts [of worship], into gardens underneath which rivers flow. Indeed God does whatever He desires, in the way of showing beneficence to those who obey Him and degrading those who disobey Him.

Verse 15

Whoever supposes that God will not help him, namely, Muhammad (s) His Prophet, in this world and the Hereafter, let him extend a rope to the ceiling, [to] the roof of his house, fixing it there and [tying it] to his neck, and let him hang himself, that is, let him choke to death because of it, by severing his soul from [any existence on] the earth, as [reported] in the [various] Sahīh compilations. Then let him see whether his strategy, against the Prophet being helped, dispels that which enrages him, about it. In other words, let him choke to death with rage because of it, for it is inevitable.

Verse 16

So, just as We revealed the previous verse, We revealed it, that is, the remainder of the Qur’ān, as clear signs, manifest [signs] (bayyināt, ‘clear signs’, is a circumstantial qualifier) and indeed God guides whomever He desires, that he be guided (wa-anna’Llāha yahdī man yurīdu, a supplement to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’, ‘it’, of anzalnāhu, ‘We revealed it’).

Verse 17

Truly those who believe, and those of Jewry, namely, the Jews, and the Sabaeans, a sect from among them, and the Christians, and the Magians and the polytheists — God will indeed judge between them on the Day of Resurrection, by admitting the believers into Paradise, and all others into the Fire. Assuredly God, over all things, [the things] which they do, is Witness, Knowing them a knowledge of direct vision (‘ilm mushāhada).

Verse 18

Have you not seen, [have you not] realised, that to God prostrate whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth, together with the sun and the moon, and the stars and the mountains, and the trees and the animals, that is, how they are submissive to Him in what He wills of them, as well as many of mankind?, namely, the believers, [who prostrate to Him] in addition to their submissiveness [to Him] when prostrating in prayer. And for many the chastisement has become due, and these are the disbelievers, for they refuse to prostrate, [an action] which is contingent on belief. And he whom God abases, [he whom] He makes unprosperous, there is none to give him honour, [none] to make him fortunate. Indeed God does whatever He will, in the way of abasing or giving honour.

Verse 19

These twain are two contenders, that is, the believers constitute one contending party, and the five [categories of] disbelievers constitute the other contending party (the term [khasm, ‘contender’] may be used to refer to one or many) who contend concerning their Lord, that is to say, concerning His religion. As for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them, [garments] which they will wear — meaning that the Fire will encompass them — and boiling water will be poured over their heads, [hamīm is] water that has reached an extreme temperature,

Verse 20

whereby will be melted that which is in their bellies, of fats and otherwise, and, whereby will be grilled, their skins.

Verse 21

And there will be hooked rods of iron for them, for their heads to be beaten with.

Verse 22

Whenever they desire to exit from it, that is, [from] the Fire, on account of [their] anguish, they are made to return into it, they are driven back into it with the hooked rods, and, it shall be said to them: ‘Taste the chastisement of the burning!’, namely, the one that has reached ultimate [degree of] combustion.

Verse 23

And He [God] says of the believers: Indeed God shall admit those who believe and perform righteous deeds into gardens underneath which rivers flow; adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearl (read wa-lu’lu’in, genitive, to mean [bracelets] made of both [elements], so that the pearls are set in gold; or read wa-lu’lu’an, accusative, as a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of min asāwira, ‘bracelets’); and their raiment therein will be silk, namely, the one forbidden for men to wear in this world.

Verse 24

And they shall be guided, in this world, to wholesome words, namely, ‘There is no god except God’, and they shall be guided to the path of the Praised, that is, to the praiseworthy way of God and His religion.

Verse 25

Truly those who disbelieve, and who bar from the way of God, [from] obedience to Him, and, from, the Sacred Mosque, which We have assigned, as a [holy] rite and a place of devotion, for mankind, equally for the dweller, the one who resides, therein and the visitor, the passer-by; and whoever seeks [to commit] sacrilege therein (the bā’ [of bi-ilhādin, ‘sacrilege’] is extra) by doing wrong, in other words, for such a reason, committing what is forbidden, even if he should curse the [Mosque’s] attendant, We shall make him taste a painful chastisement, that is, some such [chastisement] (from this [last clause] one may derive the predicate of [the introductory particle] inna, ‘truly’, and it is this: ‘We shall make them taste a painful chastisement’.

Verse 26

And, mention, when We settled, [when] We pointed out, for Abraham the site of the House, that he may build it — for it [the House] had been raised [to heaven] at the time of the Flood — and We commanded him, [saying]: ‘Do not ascribe any partner to Me and purify My House, of graven images, for those who circumambulate it and those who are resident, staying therein, and those who bow and prostrate ([al-rukka‘ and al-sujūd] are the plural forms of rāki‘ and sājid [respectively]), those praying.

Verse 27

And announce, call out, among the people the [season for] Pilgrimage. Thus he cried out from [the top of] the mountain of Abū Qubays, ‘O people, your Lord has built a House and has made pilgrimage to it an obligation upon you, so respond to [the call of] your Lord’, turning his face to the right and to the left, to the east and to the west; and every one of those for whom the performance of the pilgrimage had been preordained [by God] from among the loins of men and the wombs of women, responded to him [thus]: ‘At Your service, our Lord, [we are] at Your service’ (labbayka’Llāhumma labbayk). The response to the command [clause] is [the following]: and they shall come to you on foot, walking (rijāl, plural of rājil, similar [in pattern] to qā’im, ‘standing’, and [its plural] qiyām) and, riding, on every lean camel, that is, [on] every emaciated camel (dāmir, [this term] may be used to refer to both male and female [camels]). They shall come, that is, the lean camels (by grammatical agreement with the [feminine verb] form) from every deep ravine, [from every] distant route,

Verse 28

that they may witness, that they may be present before, things that are of benefit to them, in this world, such as commerce, or [of benefit] in the Hereafter, or in both — all [of which are [valid alternative] opinions — and mention God’s Name on appointed days, namely, the ten days of Dhū’l-Hijja, or the Day of ‘Arafa, or from the Day of Immolation up to the last days of tashrīq — all of which are [valid alternative] opinions — over the livestock which He has provided them, such as the camels, cows and sheep immolated on the Day of the ‘Īd, and any subsequent offerings or sacrifices. “So eat thereof, if it be recommended, and feed the wretched poor”, that is, the one in dire poverty.

Verse 29

Then let them do away with their self-neglect, that is to say, [let them] remove any dirt or unkemptness, such as [any] long fingernails, and let them fulfil (read wa’l-yūfū or wa’l-yuwaffū) their vows, in the way of offerings and sacrifices, and perform the circumambulation, the circumambulation following the egress [from ‘Arafa], of the Ancient House’, that is, the Old one, because it was the first House founded for mankind.

Verse 30

[That is] that (dhālika, the predicate of an implied subject, in other words: ‘the matter’ or ‘the affair’ is ‘that which has been mentioned’). And whoever venerates the sacraments of God, namely, those things whose violation is forbidden, that, veneration of them, shall be better for him with his Lord, in the Hereafter. And cattle are lawful for you, to consume, after [their] slaughter, except for that which has been recited to you, as being unlawful, in [the verse]: Forbidden to you is carrion … [Q. 5:3]. The exceptive clause [above] is a discontinuous one; but it could also be [taken as] continuous, so that the prohibition is of that which has died and so on. So avoid the abomination of idols (mina’l-awthān: min here is explicative [as opposed to partitive], in other words, ‘[avoid abomination], namely, idols’), and avoid false speech, that is to say, ascribing partners to God in your [uttering of the] talbiya, or [avoid] bearing false witness;

Verse 31

being hanīfs to God, [being] of those who have submitted [to God], inclining away from every religion except His religion, not ascribing partners to Him (this [clause] emphasises the preceding one, both [clauses] being circumstantial qualifiers referring to the [third person plural indicator] wāw [of ijtanibū, ‘avoid’]). For whoever ascribes partners to God, it is as though he had fallen from the heaven and been snatched away by [vulture] birds, that is, [as though] they had seized him swiftly, or [as though] the wind had blown him, dropped him, into a far-off place, so that there is no hope of his being saved.

Verse 32

That (dhālika, an implied subject, al-amru, ‘the matter [is]’, is taken to precede this [predicate]). And whoever venerates the sacraments of God, then that, in other words, then that veneration of them — namely, [of] the beasts of sacrifice offered in the Sanctuary, after the best of them have been selected and fattened — derives from the piety of the hearts, of those individuals. These [sacraments] are called sha‘ā’ir because they are marked out [ish‘ār] with something to indicate that they are offerings, such as having a hump pierced with a piece of metal.

Verse 33

You may benefit from them, such as riding on them and carrying your loads on them in a way that does not harm them, until a specified time, the time for its immolation. Thereafter its lawful sacrifice, that is, the site where its immolation becomes due, is by the Ancient House, meaning, the entire [Meccan] Sanctuary.

Verse 34

And for every community, that is, [for every] believing group that came before you, We have appointed a [holy] rite (read mansakan as the verbal noun [‘ritual’], or mansikan as a noun denoting the site [for a rite]) in other words, [for every community We have appointed] a sacrificial slaughter or the site for such [a ritual], that they might mention God’s Name over the livestock that He has provided them, at the point of slaughtering them. For your God is One God, so submit, yield, to Him. And give good tidings to the humbly obedient,

Verse 35

who, when God is mentioned, their hearts tremble, fear, and who endure [patiently] whatever may befall them, of ordeals, and who observe prayer, at its appointed times, and who, from that which We have provided them, expend, [from it] give voluntary alms.

Verse 36

And [as for] the sacrificial camels (al-budn, plural of badana, which are ‘camels’) — We have appointed them for you as one of God’s sacraments, the [ritual] ceremonies of His religion. There is good for you in them, benefit for you in this world, as already mentioned, and a reward in the Hereafter. So mention God’s Name over them, at the point of immolating them, when they are lined up, standing on three legs, with the left foreleg hobbled. Then, when their flanks have collapsed, fallen to the ground after immolation — which is the time when one may eat of them — eat of them, if you wish, and feed the [self-contained] beggar (al-qāni‘, [a beggar] who is content with what he is given, neither asking nor approaching [people]) and the suppliant (al-mu‘tarr, [a beggar] who asks [for charity] or approaches [people for that purpose]). So, that is, similar to such a disposal, We have disposed them for you, that it may be immolated or ridden — for otherwise it would not have been possible — that perhaps you might be thankful, for My graces to you.

Verse 37

Neither their flesh nor their blood shall reach God, that is, neither of these shall be raised up to Him; rather it is your piety that shall reach Him, that is, it is your righteous action, performed purely for Him, together with [your] faith, that shall be raised up to Him. Thus has He disposed them for you, that you may magnify God for His guiding you, for His pointing out to you the [ritual] ceremonies of His religion and the rites of His pilgrimage. And give good tidings to the virtuous, namely, those who affirm the Oneness [of God].

Verse 38

Indeed God protects those who believe, against the [ruinous] misguidance of idolaters. Indeed God does not love the treacherous, with regard to what is entrusted to him, the ungrateful, for His grace — these are the idolaters —in other words, He will punish them.

Verse 39

Permission is granted to those who fight, namely, to the believers, to fight back — this was the first verse to be revealed regarding the struggle [in the way of God] (jihād), because they have been wronged, as a result of the wrong done to them by the disbelievers. And God is truly able to help them;

Verse 40

they are, those who were expelled from their homes without right, for their expulsion; they were expelled, only because they said, that is, because of their saying: ‘Our Lord is God’, alone: such a saying is ‘right’, and so then to be expelled for [saying] it is to be expelled without right. Were it not for God’s causing some people (ba‘dahum, ‘some’, substitutes for al-nāsa, ‘people’) to drive back others, destruction would have befallen (read la-huddimat to emphasise a great number [of destructions]; or read la-hudimat) the monasteries, (sawāmi‘) is for monks, and churches, (kanā’is) are for Christians, and synagogues, (salawāt) is the Hebrew term for Jewish houses of worship (kanā’is), and mosques, (masājid) are for Muslims, in which, that is, in which mentioned places, God’s Name is mentioned greatly, and with such destruction acts of worship cease. Assuredly God will help those who help Him, that is, [who] help His religion. God is truly Strong, overpowering His creation, Mighty, Invincible in terms of His dominion and power;

Verse 41

those who, if We empower them in the land, by granting them victory over their enemies, maintain the prayer, and pay the alms, and enjoin decency and forbid indecency (this [last] is the response to the conditional clause, which together with the response constitute a relative clause of the relative noun [‘those who’]; hum, ‘they [are]’, may be taken as the implied subject before this). And with God rests the outcome of all matters, in other words, to Him these [matters] return in the Hereafter.

Verse 42

And if they deny you — these [words] to the end [of the statement] are meant to comfort the Prophet (s) — the people of Noah denied before them (kadhdhabat, in the feminine person on the basis of the [overall] import), and ‘Ād, the people of Hūd, and Thamūd, the people of Sālih,

Verse 43

as well as the people of Abraham, and the people of Lot,

Verse 44

and the inhabitants of Midian, the people of Shu‘ayb, and Moses was also denied: he was denied by the [native] Egyptians (al-qibt), and not by his people, the Children of Israel. In other words, [all of] those [people] denied their messengers, so take them [these messengers] as a good example [of constancy]. And I granted the disbelievers respite, I postponed [dealing with] them by deferring their requital, then I seized them, with chastisement, and how [terrible] was My abhorrence! (nakīr), that is to say, My rebuke (inkār) of them for their denial, by My destroying them (the interrogative is meant as an affirmative, in other words,: it [My chastisement] was well-placed).

Verse 45

How many a town I have destroyed (ahlaktuhā, a variant reading has ahlaknāhā, ‘We have destroyed’), while it was doing wrong, that is, while its inhabitants were [doing wrong] by being disbelievers, but now it lies fallen down, collapsed, on its roofs and, how many, a neglected well, abandoned because of the death of its owners, and a lofty palace, stands empty because of the death of its residents.

Verse 46

Have they, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, not travelled in the land so that they may have hearts with which to comprehend, what befell deniers before them, or ears with which to hear?, the stories of how they were destroyed and their dwelling-places were ruined, and so take heed? Indeed it is not the eyes that turn blind, but it is the hearts that turn blind within the breasts (allatī fī’l-sudūr, for emphasis).

Verse 47

And they ask you to hasten the chastisement, even though God would never break His promise, of sending down the chastisement [upon them] — and so He sent it down on the day of Badr. And truly a day with your Lord, of the days of the Hereafter, on account of the [severity of the] chastisement, is like a thousand years of your counting (read ta‘uddūna, or ya‘uddūna, ‘their counting’), in this world.

Verse 48

To how many a town did I give respite while it was doing wrong; [but] then I seized it, meaning, [I seized] its inhabitants, and with Me lies the journey’s end, the [final] return.

Verse 49

Say: ‘O mankind, that is, [O] people of Mecca, I am only a manifest warner to you’, one whose warning is plain; but also I am a giver of good tidings to the believers.

Verse 50

And so those who believe and perform righteous deeds — for them there shall be forgiveness, of their sins, and a glorious provision, namely, Paradise.

Verse 51

But those who strive against Our signs, namely, the Qur’ān, in order to invalidate them, seeking to incapacitate (mu‘ajjizīna) those who follow the Prophet ([this meaning of mu‘ajjizīna] being derived from their assumption that these [followers] are incapable individuals) and impeding them from [practising their] faith; or [mu‘ajjizīna means] supposing Us to be incapable against them (a variant reading [of mu‘ajjizīna] has mu‘ājizīna, meaning, ‘contending with Us’) that is to say, they suppose that they will [be able to] elude Us by denying resurrection and requital — those, they shall be the inhabitants of hell-fire.

Verse 52

And We did not send before you any messenger (rasūl) — this is a prophet who has been commanded to deliver a Message — or prophet (nabī) — one who has not been commanded to deliver anything — but that when he recited [the scripture] Satan cast into his recitation, what is not from the Qur’ān, but which those to whom he [the prophet] had been sent would find pleasing. The Prophet (s) had, during an assembly of the [men of] Quraysh, after reciting the [following verses from] sūrat al-Najm, Have you considered Lāt and ‘Uzzā? And Manāt, the third one? [53:19-20] added, as a result of Satan casting them onto his tongue without his [the Prophet’s] being aware of it, [the following words]: ‘those are the high-flying cranes (al-gharānīq al-‘ulā) and indeed their intercession is to be hoped for’, and so they [the men of Quraysh] were thereby delighted. Gabriel, however, later informed him [the Prophet] of this that Satan had cast onto his tongue and he was grieved by it; but was [subsequently] comforted with this following verse that he might be reassured [of God’s pleasure]: thereat God abrogates, nullifies, whatever Satan had cast, then God confirms His revelations. And God is Knower, of Satan’s casting of that which has been mentioned, Wise, in His enabling him [Satan] to do such things, for He does whatever He will.

Verse 53

That He may make what Satan has cast a trial, a test, for those in whose hearts is a sickness, dissension and hypocrisy, and those whose hearts are hardened, namely, the idolaters, [hardened] against acceptance of the truth. For truly the evildoers, the disbelievers, are [steeped] in extreme defiance, [in] a protracted feud with the Prophet (s) and the believers, for his tongue uttered mention of their gods in a way that pleased them, and yet this was later nullified.

Verse 54

And that those who have been given knowledge, [of] God’s Oneness and the Qur’ān, may know that it, the Qur’ān, is the truth from your Lord, so that they may believe therein, and their hearts may find reassurance in it. And assuredly God guides those who believe to a straight path, [a straight] route, namely, the religion of Islam.

Verse 55

And those who disbelieve will not cease to be in doubt of it, that is, the Qur’ān — because of what Satan had cast onto the tongue of the Prophet (s) and what had thereafter been nullified — until the Hour comes upon them unawares, that is, the Hour of their death or [of] resurrection, [comes upon them] suddenly, or there come upon them the chastisement of a day of desolation (‘aqīm), namely, the day of Badr, which held nothing of good for disbelievers, much like a sterile wind (rīh ‘aqīm) that bears no good; or it means, the Day of Resurrection, [referred to as ‘desolate’] because thereafter there will be no more night.

Verse 56

Sovereignty on that day, namely, on the Day of Resurrection, will be God’s, alone (the [sense of God’s] ‘consolidation’ [of sovereignty on that Day] suggested by the clause renders the adverbial qualifier [yawma’idhin, ‘on that day’] into [accusative] dependent status). He will judge between them, between believers and disbelievers in the way that He explains next: Then those who believed and performed righteous deeds will be in Gardens of Bliss, as a bounty from God,

Verse 57

while those who disbelieved and denied Our signs, for them will be a humiliating chastisement, a severe [one], because of their disbelief.

Verse 58

And those who emigrated in the way of God, that is, in obedience to Him, from [emigrating from] Mecca to Medina, and then were slain, or died, God shall provide them with a good provision, namely, the provision of Paradise. Truly God is the best of providers, the most excellent of givers.

Verse 59

Assuredly He will admit them into a place (read mudkhalan or madkhalan, [respectively] signifying the means of entry, or the place [entered]) that is pleasing to them, and that is Paradise. And truly God is Knowing, of their intentions, Forbearing, in refraining from punishing them.

Verse 60

That, which We have related to you, [is so]. And whoever retaliates, [whoever] from among the believers requites, with the like of what he was made to suffer, at the hands of the idolaters wrongfully: that is whoever fights against them if they fight against him during the sacred month, and then is [again] made to suffer aggression, by them, that is to say, he is [again] wronged, by being expelled from his house, God will surely help him. Indeed God is Pardoning, to believers, Forgiving, them their engaging in combat during the sacred month.

Verse 61

That, help, is because God makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night, that is to say, He makes each enter into the other by increasing the one [and decreasing the other], which is a sign of His power, exalted be He, [the same power] that produces [His] help, and because God is Hearer, of the supplications of believers, Seer, of them, giving them faith and responding to their supplications.

Verse 62

That, help, also, is because God, He is the Truth, the Established [Truth], and what they call on (yad‘ūna; also read tad‘ūna, ‘you call on’), [what] they worship, besides Him, namely, idols, that is the False, the transient, and because God, He is the High, the One [supreme] above all things in His power, the Great, besides Whom all things are insignificant.

Verse 63

Have you not seen, realised, that God sends down water, rain, from the heaven whereupon the earth turns green, with plants — and this [too] is a sign of His power. Indeed God is Subtle, in dealing with His servants, when He brings forth plants through water, Aware, of what is in their hearts when the rain is delayed.

Verse 64

To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth, in terms of ownership. Surely God, He is Independent, of His servants, Praiseworthy, to His friends.

Verse 65

Have you not seen, realised, that God has disposed for you all that is in the earth, of beasts, and [that] the ships run upon the sea, for transport and to carry loads, by His command, by His leave, and He holds back the heaven lest it should fall on the earth, save [when it may do so] by His leave, and you are destroyed. Surely God is, with mankind, Gentle, Merciful, in disposing [things for them] and holding [others] back [from them].

Verse 66

And He it is Who gave you life, by originating you, then He will cause you to die, upon the conclusion of your terms [of life], then He will give you life [again], at the Resurrection. Truly man, that is, [truly] the idolater, is very ungrateful, for God’s graces by neglecting to affirm His Oneness.

Verse 67

For every community We have appointed a [holy] rite (read mansakan or mansikan) a [Holy] Law, which they are to observe, which they are to implement. So do not let them dispute with you, the intended meaning is ‘do not dispute with them’, about the matter, namely, the matter of the slaughter animal, when they said, ‘What God has killed is worthier for you to eat than what you killed’; but summon [people] to your Lord, [to] His religion. Indeed you follow a straight guidance, [a straight] religion.

Verse 68

And if they dispute with you, in the matter of religion, say, ‘God knows best what you do, and will requite you for it — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them].

Verse 69

God will judge between you, O believers and disbelievers, on the Day of Resurrection concerning that wherein you used to differ’, when each of the two parties would say the opposite of what the other said.

Verse 70

Do you not know (the interrogative here is meant as an affirmative) that God knows all that is in the heaven and the earth? Truly that, which has been mentioned, is [recorded] in a Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz). Indeed that, namely, the knowledge of what has been mentioned, is easy for God.

Verse 71

And they, the idolaters, worship besides God that, namely, idols, for which He has never revealed any warrant, [any] definitive proof, and that of which they have no knowledge, [when they claim] that these are gods. And those who do evil, by way of [practising] idolatry, shall have no helper, to protect them against God’s chastisement.

Verse 72

And when Our signs, in the Qur’ān, are recited to them, [though they are] clear, manifest, signs (bayyinātin, a circumstantial qualifier) you perceive on the faces of those who disbelieve denial, that is to say, denial of these [signs], in other words [you perceive] the effect of such [denial] in the way of aversion and frowning. They would almost pounce upon those who recite Our signs to them, that is, [they would almost] fall upon them in assault. Say: ‘Shall I inform you about something worse than that?, something more repulsive to you than the Qur’ān that is being recited to you? It is, The Fire! God has promised it to the disbelievers, in that their journey’s end shall be to it. And it is an evil journey’s end!’

Verse 73

O mankind, that is to say, [O] people of Mecca, a similitude is being struck, so listen to it, and it is that: truly those on whom you call, [whom] you worship, besides God, that is, other than Him, and these are the idols, will never create a fly (dhubāb is a generic noun, the singular of which is dhubāba, for both the masculine and the feminine) even if they rallied together to do so, to create it. And if a fly should take away something from them, [such as a drop] of the scents or the saffron in which they drench themselves, they would not be able to recover that from it, because of their [complete] incapacity: so how can they worship those [whom they suppose to be] partners of God, exalted be He? An odd thing — which He has expressed by striking a similitude. Feeble is the seeker, the worshipper, and the [thing] sought, the [thing] worshipped!

Verse 74

They do not esteem God, exalt Him, with the esteem He deserves, with the exaltedness [He deserves], for they ascribe to Him partners who can neither protect themselves from a fly, nor retaliate against it. Truly God is Strong, Mighty, Victor.

Verse 75

God chooses from the angels messengers and [also chooses] from mankind, messengers — this was revealed after the idolaters said, Has the Remembrance been revealed to him out of [all of] us? [Q. 38:8]. Truly God is Hearer, of what they say, Seer, of those whom He chooses as messengers, such as Gabriel, Michael, Abraham, Muhammad (s) and others, may God bless them and grant them peace.

Verse 76

He knows that which is before them and that which is behind them, in other words, what they have offered [in the way of deeds] and what they have left behind, and what they have done and what they will do next; and to God all matters are returned.

Verse 77

O you who believe, bow down and prostrate yourselves, in other words, perform prayer, and worship your Lord, affirm His Oneness, and do good, such as [showing] kindness to kin and [the adoption of] noble traits, that perhaps you may be prosperous, [that perhaps] you may secure everlasting life in Paradise.

Verse 78

And struggle in the way of God, in order to establish His religion, a struggle worthy of Him, by expending all effort therein (haqqa is in the accusative because it is a verbal noun). He has elected you, He has chosen you for His religion, and has not laid upon you in your religion any hardship, that is, [any] constraint, for He has facilitated [adherence to] it during times of difficulty, such as [His permitting you] to shorten prayers, to seek ritual purification from earth, to eat of carrion, and to break the fast during illness or travel — the creed of your father (millata is in the accusative because the genitive preposition kāf [sc. ka-millati, ‘like the creed of’] has been omitted) Abraham (Ibrāhīma, an explicative supplement). He, that is, God, named you Muslims before, that is, before [the revelation of] this Book, and in this, that is, [in] the Qur’ān, so that the Messenger might be a witness against you, on the Day of Resurrection, that he delivered the Message to you, and that you might be witnesses against mankind, that their messengers delivered the Message to them. So maintain prayer, observe it regularly, and pay the alms, and hold fast to God, trust in Him. He is your Patron, your Helper and the Guardian of your affairs. An excellent Patron, is He, and an excellent Helper, for you.

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Juz 17 | AL-ANBIYA 21:1 -> AL-HAJJ 22:78

Surah 21 AL-ANBIYA

Surah 22 AL-HAJJ

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